The magazine recognizes the person or group of people who most influenced the news and the world “for better or for worse” during the past year.

The “guardians” are slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi; the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, where five people were shot and killed at the newspaper’s offices in June; Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, who has been arrested; and two Reuters journalists detained in Myanmar for nearly a year, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.